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Monday, 8 May 2017

Government of South Sudan has
denied reports that show its soldiers attacking a United Nations peacekeeping
base in Leer, a town in Unity state.The South Sudan army spokesman, Santo Domic
Chol, confirmed on Saturday that “Our forces did not attack any UN facility.
That is not part of our culture. It is not part of our operations. We do not
have a problem with the United Nations and therefore not wise to just feed the
public with incident which has not been fully investigated and proved to have
carried out by our forces.”

The official was reacting to the
Security Council’s condemnation of the attack, which reportedly came from the
direction of a government-held territory in Leer. Members of the Security
Council, in a statement, strongly condemned the attack on its South Sudan
mission (UNMISS) in Leer. The incident took place on the 3 May.

The UN Council expressed
appreciation for the actions taken by UNMISS peacekeepers to repel the attack,
pointing out that individuals, who, directly or indirectly, engage in attacks
against UN missions, international security presence, or other peacekeeping
operations, or humanitarian personnel, may be designated for targeted
sanctions.

“The members of the Security
Council further condemned the continued violence committed by all parties in
South Sudan, including the ongoing military offensives, and called on all
parties to immediately adhere to the permanent ceasefire as called for in the
Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan and to remove all
obstacles to delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” partly reads the
statement.

Relations between South Sudan
government and the world body soured when conflict erupted in the young nation
in mid-December 2013, forcing thousands of unarmed civilians to seek protection
various camps and compounds manned by the U.N from the fighting. The government
accused UN of sheltering rebels inside its bases.

A January 2014 incident in which
UNMISS barred the country’s information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth from entering
its base in Jonglei after his bodyguards were found in possession of weapons
worsened ties between government and the UN.

However, in events that followed,
President Salva Kiir accused the world body of seeking to take over the
war-torn nation, reinforcing speculations by members of his government that U.N
mission in the country may have pushed his main political rival, Riek Machar,
to rise up against him. The president later retracted his accusations.